


The curse of Agni

by salytierra



Series: Ahoy, Blue Spirit hearties! [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Badass Suki (Avatar), Badass Zuko (Avatar), F/M, Gen, Jet (Avatar) Lives, Jet (Avatar)-centric, Jet (avatar) renaissance, Origin Story, Suki and Zuko absolutely KILL IT as a unit, firebender jet, mentions of sexual assault (from 100 years ago), takes place one year before the beginning of Heave Ho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26845054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salytierra/pseuds/salytierra
Summary: “Why are you even a firebender? It's like handing a knife to a monkey.”Oh, if only Sokka knew…OR: the story of Jet. His life before the Blue Spirit and how he became an integral part of the crew.
Relationships: Jet & Smellerbee (Avatar), Suki/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Ahoy, Blue Spirit hearties! [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1929136
Comments: 14
Kudos: 95





	The curse of Agni

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cunningfolks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cunningfolks/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Heave Ho: sea rats and future kings!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26530291) by [salytierra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salytierra/pseuds/salytierra). 



> @ Heave Ho readers: I TOLD YOU I'D DO IT, BITCHES!!!  
> @ Everyone else: (how did you even get here?) Welcome, but you probably need to read the main fic in this series to understand what the heck is going on. 
> 
> Jet was kind of a popular character and I personally wanted to expand on his lore, so I wrote this in a period-pain haze to a looped soundrack of the Young/Babic cover of You're Gonna Go Far Kid ([x](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67G_iQuMgN0))

The first time Jet burned down something was on the day his life fell apart. Or, more exactly, it was him accidentally blasting fire at the family shed what ruined everything. His parents had been so furious, confused and disgusted, a long-buried secret coming into the light. And what would have happened if they’d decided that they could get through this as a family? Well, that’s a nice hypothesis to wonder about, because instead they decided they couldn’t live with a _creature_ like that under their roof. His cousins and siblings wouldn't be safe, you see? And think of the shame! 

Barely twelve years old and already on the streets, alone and out of luck, always hungry, hiding something ugly and writhing in his bones, Jet quickly learned that hate was an easy way to cleanse all other emotions and focus on survival.

He found salvation in a fishing town, begging on the markets and stealing when there was no danger of getting stabbed to death, he answered a call from a shady-looking crew for a cabin boy. Jet wasn’t stupid, he knew pirates when he saw them, but a hot meal every day and a roof over his head was a hard offer to refuse. 

He spent the next two years running errands, doing the dirtiest, most disgusting jobs that nobody else wanted, being kicked, yelled at, and taught to swear and to pretend like he didn’t have a care in the world. He learned a lot too, how to navigate and fix the rigging, how to snap back and fight with whatever was at hand... His one saving grace was the cook, an ancient man with both legs amputated that used Jet as a helping hand but never hit him and even taught the young kid how to make all sorts of dishes with the meager ship supplies and loots. 

The crew of that wrecked ship had a good run, it really did, except that any luck eventually runs out when it hasn’t been earned. The alliance did a number on the cornered ship and made an example of its sailors, those that survived, that is. And who doesn’t love a public execution of pirates? Except that nobody expected the scrawny cabin boy to burst into flames. And it had been an accident again, out of desperation and fear. But it worked and Jet managed to cause enough mayhem to scatter under a cabbage cart and hide.

“I saw you before” a little child said, peeking under the cart. She was dirty and scrawny, covered in rags, and Jet knew an orphan when he saw one, like a kindred spirit. 

“Please, don’t-” He started to beg, but she just crawled under the cart with him, squinting into his face with a mix of interest and suspicion. 

“You are a pirate?”

“I was.” 

“How do pirates get food?”

“We steal it.” 

“I know how to steal as well. Does that mean I’m a pirate too?”

“You could be.”

“Great!” She grinned, showing the gaps in her teeth “I’m Smellerbee.”

And say whatever you want about Jet, but once he finds his mark, he’ll latch onto any way to reach it. It took him four years and a lot of trial and error until he was able to assemble a group of ragged orphans, fugitive kids, down on their luck young adults, and angry people in general, and set his sight on a ship easy enough to steal. And maybe it wasn’t necessary, maybe they could have lived in a forest community or built up a village, but that’s not what they all trained for. Jet had fallen in love with the open sea, with the retribution of a raid, with the salt on his skin. He had tasted the freedom of the open horizon, and he was not ready to let it go. 

They made some acquaintances too. And how ironic was it? - that now that he had a crew and something to be seen for, the Resistance wanted to “get to know him”? Nobody had ever wanted to know him before, when he was nothing. But Smellerbee gave him one “look” and it’d been enough to convince him to play civil. You never knew when you’d need an ally. 

But truth be told - there were other reasons why Jet didn’t like the Resistance. They were too quick to… forgive. He knew they harbored firefolk, and claimed that those detractors were on their side. But how could empty promises from ash makers ever be enough? How stupid did they think he was? And no matter what the only two other people who knew about his shameful secret said - he was not like them. He would not fall into that trap, no matter how hard it was getting to keep the blaze under his skin contained, how much he needed to just let go and set it free. Sometimes he would be working on his maps and the paper under his fingertips would turn to charcoal. He’d tear the remains apart, letting everyone believe it had been a fit of blind rage. Or he’d singe the helm handles under his palms and have to scrape it off at night. 

“You have to do something with this.” Smellerbee hissed angrily, “or come clean to the rest. They have the right to know.” 

“Don’t you dare!” Jet snarled at her, sparks dancing between his teeth. “This is nobody’s business by my own. I’m FINE!”

“No, you are not! You are losing control! You have to learn-” 

“I said I’m fine! And if you don’t trust me you can get off at the next port!”

She recoiled at that, eyes narrowed into slits “we’ll see about that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She turned away, sneering at him over her shoulder “It means that you are my oldest friend, Jet, my brother. But if your pigheadedness puts the rest of us in danger, you might be surprised to find out where your crew’s loyalties lay.” 

Whatever. Jet didn’t need her, he didn’t need Longshot either. He was fine, and he knew what he was doing. 

It was a lie of course. Jet needed them to the bones, and he had no idea what he was doing at any given time. It was one thing to be a cabin boy, it was another to command a crew of his own, teach them the ropes, teach them to fight, and hide his increasingly more virulent secret. 

He had to make decisions about raids too. What they could or couldn’t take on. And those really weren't the kind of gambles a captain should make blinded by anger and perpetual fire smoldering under his skin. 

And his last gamble turned into a tragedy. 

“YOU ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!” Smellerbee yelled at him, in the midst of their mangled crew, the ones that made it, at least. Tears streaming down her face. And Longshot’s disappointed, angry glare said more than any words could. And Jet has had enough. He was reeling from the battle, from the guilt and fear and adrenaline and self-loathing. He wanted her to stop. He wanted not to be in the center of everyone’s attention, he just… _he wanted everything to burn away._

He let it loose. He almost made what had already been a disaster into a doomsday. And the horrified surprise on everyone’s face was something he would never forget. 

Longshot had jumped to pull Smellerbee back. She came out of it with some minor burns but his entire shoulder needed a lot of treatment. 

“Enough.” She’d said, so quietly Jet almost couldn't hear her. But that was it. He couldn't be their captain anymore, he couldn't be even a member of his own ship’s crew. 

He sat on the sands of an empty beach, an island of barely a couple coconut trees and a colony of marine iguanas. They’d left him one bucket of water and his swords. Nothing else, nothing he’d worked so hard to get over the years. And what did it even matter? He’d die here, either by his own hand or of dehydration. That’s the fate that his “sister” had deemed fit for him. And a part of Jet knew that she was right. Why was he so adamant, so goddamn stubborn to survive? Wasn’t the rancid, evil blood inside of him a sign that he should have never existed? 

He stared at his swords every day, gathering wavering valor. But still fished and climbed the coconut trees, still hunted iguanas and portioned off that water, carefully boiling it when it started to go rancid. He had one fourth of the bucket left and a week of stowaway life under his belt. Once the water ran out, he would be left with only animal blood and coconuts for hydration. 

Days like these, he thought about his mother and father. Did they ever miss him? Had they ever regretted kicking him out? 

It had been two days since his water ran out when the dark silhouette of a ship appeared on the horizon. From Jet’s sunburnt and malnourished perspective, it almost looked like it was headed straight for his island. He couldn't let it pass by though, and started jumping up and down, waving his arms and crying for help. However he abruptly stopped when it got close enough to recognize the outline of the vessel. A Fire Nation warship. 

Jet took a step back towards the trees. He’d rather die slowly and painfully than get captured by the firefolk, He’d rather-

The wind shifted to the side, unfurling a black flag over the sails. 

Jet didn’t know if to be relieved or curse his luck. There was only one pirate crew in these waters that sailed in a Fire Nation warship. 

“What do you want from me?” He asked an hour later. The Blue Spirit’s captain exchanged a puzzled look with his second in command, a young woman from Kyoshi island. And how someone that had escaped Kyoshi’s fate could share a crew, a responsibility and a bed with a wretched ash maker princeling, was beyond Jet’s comprehension. 

“We,” she pointed at him “just saved your emaciated ass. I’m pretty sure you have nothing that we’d want.” 

They were in the captain’s cabin, Zuko reclined against the side of his bed, cross legged and looking for the world like he didn’t give a damn, his quartermaster by his side, her elbow perched on his shoulder. Jet, sitting on the other side of the low table — with _a cup of tea_ of all things, under his nose — felt like he was being offered up for a judgement of fate. 

“So am I supposed to believe you just happened to sail by and saw me on the shore, so I should thank you for your _generosity_ and Nuwa for her grace?” Jet spat out. And yeah, maybe he should be more polite with his rescuers, but not for a moment he forgot that Zuko was firefolk. As if he’d read his mind, he man himself hummed and raised his hand, twisting his wrist in a graceful circle. A wisp of flame flickered to life, coiling around his fingers like a silk ribbon. So elegant and delicate, unlike Jet’s own uncontrolled bursts. 

“In your case, you probably should be thanking Agni.”

“What-”

“Or Smellerbee. Since she’s the one who asked us to come and get you.”

Jet was taken aback. “She did?” 

“She told us everything that happened. Why she felt the need to maroon you.” Suki picked up. Meanwhile the flame in Zuko’s hands shifted and grew, changing shape and, for a moment, it looked like a ship with a fire rising on deck and growing until it consumed the ephemeral vessel. “You know? We have four firebenders aboard and we’ve never had any incidents, it’s rather unfortunate what a lack of proper training can do.”

Jet blanched. After years, after all the times he’d asked her not to, and to just anybody- she had- his deepest secret! 

“That’s _NONE_ of your business!” He jumped up on his feet, fists shaking. “Just let me down at the next port I’ll-” 

“You’ll do _what?_ ” Zuko snorted, killing his fire by snapping his fist around it like he’d trap a pesky fly “Go live the rest of your life as a hazard to yourself and everybody around you?”

“How is that _your_ concern?” 

“Your friends asked us for help.” Suki tried to placate him “So you can learn control, in every sense of the way, and maybe come back to them one day. They love you-”

“THEY BETRAYED ME!” Jet yelled, towering over her face. And it wasn’t about the mutiny or the marooning even. For years, he’d asked Smellerbee, begged her, never to tell anyone-

“ _YOU_ betrayed _THEM!_ ” Zuko exploded, raising up as well and jabbing a finger painfully in Jet’s chest, making him stumble backwards. Sparks flaring up in his panther eyes, distorted by that horrid scar, and for a second the captain of the Blue Spirit looked like he did to his enemies - unnaturally terrifying. Jet took a step back, momentarily frozen. “Your duty as a captain was to your crew! Your job was to protect them, not to endanger their lives with your personal demons!”

“How are you lecturing me about being a captain!?” Jet squared up, snapping out of his reverie to snarl in his face “I’ve been on the sea far longer than you!” 

“Enough!” with a hand on each of their shoulders Suki pushed them apart. She turned to Jet “Zuko has been learning how to be a captain for the past two years, while you were learning how to _pretend_. Pretend like you already knew how to be one.” 

And fuck, if that didn’t hit dangerously close to home. Jet’s breaths felt like razor blades in his lungs. 

She sat back down, pulling on her boyfriend’s arm and Jet could stand there like an idiot, swaying on his feet, or take her grace and collapse back down. He did exactly that. 

“Agni has bestowed a rare gift upon you-” she started, calmly. 

“It’s a curse.” Jet interrupted her. “Your people-” he glared at Zuko “came and took by force whatever they wanted, _whoever_ they wanted.” 

“Is that how your-”

“My grandmother was born, yes. How is the result of that repulsive act a gift? How could I ever _embrace_ it?” 

“Nobody is asking you to forgive and forget.” Zuko sounded sympathetic, and Jet wasn’t sure if it was better or worse than raw fury. “You hate the Fire Nation? Good. Use it. As long as you don’t misdirect your anger towards the firefolk on this crew.” 

“Allow us to help you.” Suki reached out to squeeze his shoulder gently “Call it a gift, a curse or just poetic justice, Agni has handed you the means to fight back against your enemies, with their own weapons. You can let it make you or break you.” 

And Jet felt his shoulders drop. He was so, so tired. It’s been years of holding it together, of aiming for goals he didn’t know how to name, ever since he was forced to leave home he’d been fighting non-stop every second, every minute of every day; to survive, to keep up appearances, to convince others to follow him by putting on a masquerade of confidence and passion, of keeping secrets and wrestling for control with the beast inside him. 

Just so, so tired. 

And now, so alone. Without Smellerbee and Longshot by his side for the first time in years. Lost. Too exhausted and scared to start anew, to claw his way back from the ground up, knowing every connection he made would be meaningless because he’d never be able to trust again. 

He closed his eyes, just breathing in the scent of old timber and campfire smoke that seemed to always linger in the air around Zuko. Silence. They were leaving him time to clear his mind. 

“If I stay…” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “What are your conditions?”

“You learn firebending.” Zuko’s tone left no room for negotiation. “Effective immediately. I will have no hazards on my ship.” 

“Is that all?” Jet didn’t like the idea of being useless. Suki must have read that on his face because she smirked sweetly at him-

“Well, Smellerbee also told us, you make a killer bowl of stew.” 

**Author's Note:**

> and then he proceeded to be a major pain in the ass for everyone, lol 
> 
> Drop me a word if you enjoyed this (or if it gave you feels) and what do you think about Jet now. Also, Smellerbee was deffo my favorite character to write here!


End file.
